Cash investigation, 10/29: «Cannabis, the multinational money launderer».»

In a 70-minute documentary, *Cash Investigation* probes cannabis money-laundering networks. Nicolas Vescovacci, the documentary’s director, is no stranger to long-term investigations. He is best known for the documentary «The Sarkozy–Gaddafi Affair: Suspicions Over Millions» and the book «Vincent the Almighty» about Vincent Bolloré.

This episode of *Cash Investigation* stems from a police investigation known as Operation Rétro Virus. In 2014, the operation uncovered a sophisticated money-laundering scheme that shed light on How Cannabis Money... was funneled back into the real economy. Bankers, front companies, and audit firms—the complex money-laundering network is dissected in the style of *Cash*, sometimes ending up in well-established companies in France that are likely unaware of the funds’ origin.

Cannabis generates at least 1 billion euros per year in France, enormous sums of money circulating in cash that must be laundered before they can be used.

These funds actually go abroad before coming back. Cash will go from France to Morocco, in Belgium or in Dubai to examine the various professions, each of which handles a link in the money-laundering chain. The sums involved are mind-boggling: of the 250 million allegedly laundered each year by one of the networks, the French police has identified only 7 million. In Dubai, the laundry workers, for their part, manage, several billion per year. And while some of the shadow bankers have been prosecuted, their nationality protects them from extradition.

One final question will then remain: what if the money from the Cannabis had never left the economy real?

«Cannabis, the Money-Laundering Multinational,» a survey by Nicolas Vescovacci, airing Tuesday, October 29, 2019, at 11:00 p.m. on France 2.